The invention pertains to a cutter for clip-on sunglasses, and more particularly to an apparatus for custom cutting clip-on sunglasses to the shape of eyeglasses.
People enjoy wearing sunglasses to improve their vision and comfort on sunny days as sunglasses reduce glare and shade the eyes. A variety of low cost sunglasses are readily available for people who do not require corrective lenses. However, for people with poor vision who require corrective eyeglasses, sunglasses are expensive. Prescription eyeglasses with corrective lenses are expensive, and the cost of coating the sunglasses significantly increases the price of the prescription sunglasses. Additionally, new prescription sunglasses must be purchased each time the wearer's vision changes. For people who change prescriptions often, the cost of purchasing prescription sunglasses each time new eyeglasses are required is prohibitive. Accordingly, wearers of prescription eyeglasses may use old prescription sunglasses which do not provide adequate vision correction, or they may go without sunglasses.
Clip-on sunglasses are a low-cost alternative to prescription sunglasses. Clip-on sunglasses clip over conventional prescription glasses to convert these eyeglasses into sunglasses. Although they provide a cost effective solution to the problem of providing sunglasses for people who require corrective vision, clip-on sunglasses are unattractive since they are manufactured in a limited number of shapes and sizes and do not conform to the shape of the eyeglasses. Because people are very conscious of their appearance, opticians cut clip-on sunglasses to the shape of eyeglasses using scissors in an attempt to provide more attractive clip-on sunglasses. Not only is this time consuming to the optician, errors are made during cutting of the sunglasses which necessitates throwing away some clip-on sunglasses and starting again on a new pair of sunglasses. As a consequence, opticians typically do not make a profit on these clip-on sunglasses, and may in fact lose money selling custom fit sunglasses. Additionally, the sunglasses will have rough edges which are unattractive. Because people are concerned about their appearance, they typically will not wear these clip-on sunglasses.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system which facilitates quick and accurate cutting of clip-on sunglasses to a desired shape and size. It is further desirable to achieve this goal in a manner which minimizes the possibility of operator errors which would otherwise destroy the clip-on sunglasses.